“Marry him? Baron? You were a fucking kid.”
“I was. But—”
“Do not make excuses for him.”
“I loved him. In a way. He was the man who swooped in and saved us. Yes, I was young, but it was not uncommon. He was kind, but he did not love me.” For once, she didn’t feel anything at that statement. She was numb.
“He married a kid. He’s a fucking pedophile.”
“I agreed to the marriage. It’s not common for girls to get married that young anymore, but it does happen.”
“You’re defending him.”
“I am not. I’m just…” She sighed. “It was a different time. I was someone else.”
“Let me guess what happened next. He wanted to upgrade, so he divorced you and made you a spy?”
She cringed. It was near to the truth.
“He wanted children. I couldn’t give them to him.”
“I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
“It’s in the past, Luke. Besides, I was a good agent.”
“You were a kid.”
“They needed someone my age. I did important work. I was good at it. My mother was provided for. I wanted for nothing. Baron got to remarry.”
“Did he ever have those kids?”
“I don’t know.”
Lies.
She knew.
But it was not her place to talk about her ex-husband’s life. All she wanted was for him to be happy, even if he’d crushed her young heart.
“What could be so fucking important that Mossad needed a teenage girl to do their dirty work for them?”
“It’s old news.” She tipped her chin up staring at the ceiling.
“Seriously, what was so important?”
“There was a Palestinian professor teaching history at Princeton. He was sympathetic to the Taliban. Mossad suspected he was recruiting young people. He was. They needed proof. In post-9/11 America, he had to be careful. So I went to Princeton. I took every class he taught. Attended every study hall and special lecture. I pretended to even fail some classes so I would have to retake them. I presented myself as a passionate young woman dissatisfied with my life, and after a few years, he invited me to a special group. A while later, I had coffee with him and a visiting friend who spoke to me in code about a higher calling.”
“He recruited you.”
“He did. I trained on the university campus, and when I proved myself trustworthy, I left for training camps. I spent years as that girl, leading a double life, so scared of failing. Scared of succeeding.” She couldn’t even remember what that rush of adrenaline and fear felt like anymore.
“Mossad gave up valuable information on Bin Laden. Was that you?”
“It’s hard to know.” Abigail shrugged. “I was in that world so deep that it became part of me. I learned how to sabotage my friends to ensure their missions failed. I was good at it. And my handlers always made sure to tell me how good I was doing. That I was making a difference. That they were preventing the deaths of not only our people—but others as well.”
“When did they first ask you to kill for them?”
“I was nineteen.” She didn’t have to think about that. The nightmares no longer haunted her, because after a certain point, death was just part of the world.
“Who was it?”
“The man my professor introduced me to, the one we had coffee with. He was dangerous. We’d never gotten close to him. And without him, without what was in his head, hundreds of cells would wither and die, and missions couldn’t go forward.”
“Holly shit. You were a kid, Abigail.”
“They were my choices, Luke. I could have said no.”
“And what were the consequences if you had?”
“I don’t know. I never refused an order.”
“Until the guy blackmailed you.”
“Yes.” She tilted her head toward him. “Luke?”
“What?”
“Tell them what you know.” She turned, finally looking at him. His face was twisted and angry, his eyes ablaze with righteous rage. What was it like to feel so passionately? Baron was watching. He’d see this moment, and as much as she wanted to keep her feelings for Luke a secret—they had to know Luke was the breaking point. The weak link in this puzzle. If Luke would just tell them, negotiate a deal, he could be free. “Find out if my mother really is dead.”
“You don’t believe him.”
“I believe Baron would say and do whatever he thought he had to.”
“We’re getting out of this.”
“You will. Just tell them everything you know. Baron will let you go. When they come next, tell him.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Your ‘No man left behind’ motto does not apply to me. This is my home. These are my consequences. I am not your responsibility.”
“You were betrayed. There’s a difference. You hear that, motherfuckers?” He was yelling now. “They can hear me, can’t they?”
“Probably.” Last she’d seen The Pit, it’d been newly outfitted with microphones. Tiny ones that were near impossible to see.
“You’ve been here before?”
She nodded.
“Tell me about this place.”
“No one gets out.”
“Humor me.”
“The Pit is a cave dug into the side of a mountain. It goes down to four cells where we hold people meant to disappear.” And no one wanted her to come back to life, not since she’d been presumed dead for so long. She was a security risk.
“How many people are here?”
“I don’t know. This is the largest cell. It is where they tried to break me as a recruit. I was held here for five weeks, interrogated, and tortured. It is the place people go to die.”
“So they don’t keep a lot of staff here, I imagine?”
“No. At most, eight people, but I’d guess they’re keeping maybe two on hand. But we can’t get out.”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”
“You’re brave, Luke but don’t be stupid. Tell Baron what he wants to know when he comes back and go home. Your mother must be worried about you.”
“And what am I supposed to tell your mom when I find her? Sorry, I left your daughter in a pit to die? I don’t think so. We are getting out of here Abigail, and that’s the end of it.”
Luke wasn’t going to listen to her. He was hardwired to believe an escape was possible. He was cut from the stuff heroes were made from, except he had no idea this was a losing battle. She could not be saved. Mossad could not afford to let her walk out of here. And she couldn’t afford to trust them when Baron said to tell them what they wanted to know in exchange for Luke’s life. He had to make that deal himself, and he wouldn’t. Because he had some fucked up idea he could still save her.
She lost track of time, as the conditions in The Pit were intended to do. Between the bursts of loud music and the lights, it was hard to tell. Eventually the door swung open and Baron stepped in, wearing the same suit as before.
“Take his handcuffs off,” Baron said to the guards in Hebrew and then in English. “They’re going to release you, Luke. Would you care for dinner?”
Luke didn’t respond. The guards unlocked his handcuffs and stepped back while Luke stood and stretched.
Abigail kept her gaze on the ground.
Baron would, no doubt, be curious about Luke. She’d kept her romantic relationships quiet, always conscious that her actions reflected on her ex-husband as much as they did her.
“You must be hungry, Luke.” Baron gestured to the door. “I can have us—”
“No, thanks,” Luke said. He closed the few feet to stand at Abigail’s side. “How you doing, sugar? About ready for these to come off?”
“The invitation was only for you.” Baron sounded…amused. Which was never a good thing.
“Why would I want to go anywhere but here?” Luke slid his fingers up her throat and down her jaw, tipping her chin up. He leane
d down and pressed his lips to hers.
She shouldn’t allow him to kiss her, but she wanted it. If it was the last bit of good she got to feel, Luke’s lips were it. His tongue teased her mouth. He pulled back, a wide smile on his lips.
“That’s my favorite flavor right there. You can’t offer me anything better.”
The way Luke stared at her…she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She could only feel a hundred butterflies in her stomach. Damn him for stumbling into her life now. If they’d met earlier… If they’d known each other before…
The muscles around her chest constricted until it was hard to breathe past the feeling, past the yearning for him. It wasn’t until several moments later that she realized Baron and the guards were gone.
Luke fought the urge to drum his fingers on the table. He knew interrogation tactics. Could recite the playbook. They all knew what was happening here. The only question was, how long until Luke could bust them free?
So far he’d only seen the two guards and Abigail—no, Yael’s—ex-husband. Those were two very different women in Luke’s eyes. Abigail would chew that prissy man up and spit him out. Yael needed to remember she was no longer a child bride to a man without morals.
The door swung open and Baron stepped in, holding a fucking McDonald’s bag and two cups of coffee.
They were close enough to civilization that the coffee was still steaming.
“I guessed what you might like.” Baron plopped the bag on the table and set the coffee within easy reach.
The guard hadn’t put the handcuffs back on Luke. He could hurl the coffee at the man, deck him, get a pound of flesh if he wanted to, but then he might lose the ability to move around freely. He could pick the handcuffs. They hadn’t searched him to any great degree.
“What’d you get Abigail?” Luke asked.
“I was hoping to talk about your little road trip.”
“You know Abigail likes meat with her breakfast.”
“You continue to call her by an alias. Why?”
“That’s her name.”
“Her name is Yael.”
“Maybe to you. To me, she’s Abigail.”
“Do you know how many aliases we have on file for her?”
“Do I care?”
“Over sixty. You know the kind of work a clandestine combatant has to do to go through that many names?”
Luke bit the inside of his mouth and leaned back with his arms crossed. This was the divide and conquer routine. They’d trot out whatever atrocities they thought might turn his stomach in an effort to get him to abandon her.
“She’s not who you think she is.”
“Yeah? And who was she when you married her? A kid. You like little girls, huh? We have a word for men like you. Pedophile.”
“I was married to Yael, yes, which only means I know her better than you.”
“She was a kid.”
Baron pulled an enlarged photograph out of a folder he’d hidden behind the bag of food.
Damn the food smelled good.
Sausage biscuit, maybe some cheese. His stomach was starting to gnaw on his spleen. Food would be heavenly right about now. But unless Abigail was also getting fed, he wouldn’t eat a crumb.
“They pulled Ethan Turner’s body from the rubble, finally. He was beyond saving.” Baron slid a photograph across to him.
The rubble and street were familiar. He could even recall in greater detail what was around it, who’d lain where. But the body the picture was focused on was new. Trails of blood indicated the body had been moved, maybe dragged from under the rubble and placed there. It was too far away for Luke to be certain. He couldn’t even entertain that possibility. Not now.
“That could be anybody.” Luke pushed the picture across the table.
“We have confirmation it’s your friend.”
“Yeah, and the sky is pink.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“Sorry, the whole pedophile thing makes it hard for me to listen to your voice without being sick.”
“You seem to be stuck on a nonissue. Yael’s mother arranged the marriage. It was with our family’s blessing. Within our laws, it was legal.”
“You’re sick, is what you are.”
“Mr. Briar, you are placing your faith in a broken woman. Abigail? The woman you know? She is dangerous.”
“One little, tiny woman has you shaking in your boots.” Luke shook his head.
What he wouldn’t give to punch this guy. Right in the face. Break his nose.
“I trained her. I know what she is capable of. You’d do well to work with us. Tell me about the road trip. Where were you headed? Who were you meeting?”
“Santa Claus.”
“Mr. Briar, your cooperation will only speed your return home. I have no desire to keep you, but the longer you maintain this…delusion…that Yael is anything but a traitor the less I can do for you.”
“Do your bosses know you like little girls?”
Baron grit his teeth and the way he stared at Luke was downright hateful.
“She got too old for you, didn’t she?” Luke stared at his nails to keep from having to look at the creep. He wasn’t hungry anymore. No, rage burned up that sensation along with everything else.
He wanted to kill this fucker—wrap his hands around his throat, and squeeze.
“She wanted to be my wife, Mr.—”
Luke reached across the table, grabbed Baron by his smarmy blue tie and decked him right in the face so hard Luke’s hand went numb. Scalding hot coffee splattered everywhere. Baron’s eye’s bulged and he nearly fell to the floor
The cell doors opened and both guards charged in.
Luke released Baron and put his hands up. One guard swung his baton, hitting Luke in the stomach. His rage dulled the pain a bit, but he still went to his knees. The other guard wrenched his arm behind his back and kicked, landing a solid blow against the side of Luke’s knee.
Fuck, that was going to swell.
Baron barked an order, and the guards stopped.
“I hope you got that out of your system, Mr. Briar. Things will not go well for you.” Baron said something to the guards.
The two men hauled Luke to his feet, one on either side of him, and dragged him out, down the hall and pushed him through the door into the cell he’d shared with Abigail. Except she wasn’t there.
“You have that man wrapped around your finger.”
Abigail stared at the metal table between her and her ex-husband. Though they’d removed her handcuffs, she still felt their presence. She was a prisoner. And she’d given Baron the advantage. She should never have let Luke goad her into talking. They’d exposed too much of themselves in what was not a private moment. Baron was too perceptive to have missed it.
“How did you manage that? You only just met him.” Baron drew on the table with a finger. “You were always good with people though. At least when you wanted to be. I’ll never forget watching you, how you’d just…change. At home you were so quiet I’d almost forget you were there. And then we’d go somewhere. A dinner, maybe. You’d stand back, watch the room, and decide who to be. That’s how I knew you’d make a good agent. Even as a girl, you knew how to read people.”
She couldn’t deny his words.
Abigail had been an awkward teen, so hungry to please this man and her mother. She’d done what she could. She’d been the person she needed to be when she needed to be it.
“You’re going to get him killed, you know that?”
If only Luke would at least appear to betray her. But he wouldn’t, and damn him for it. The silly, loyal man needed to tell the truth. Why couldn’t he do that?
“Look at me, at least,” Baron said.
She let her gaze slid from the table to his hand and up.
Baron had aged. He’d been a handsome man, and as he aged he’d only become…more distinguished in his appearance. He was still handsome, but the silver at his temples and in his beard made him s
eem wiser. He had a brilliant mind, but it’d come at the sacrifice of his heart. There wasn’t enough of it for anything but his work. It was something she’d grown to understand, how this job was more than that. It was a calling, and she’d been good at it.
But she’d wanted more.
She’d loved Baron because he was a good man who did a good thing. But he’d never loved her back. Not once.
“There you are, my pet.” One side of his mouth curled up. “Just tell me what I want to know and all of this can be over.”
And by over he meant her life. It was over, but who would her death protect? Who was still out there? Was Baron in on it? Could it be someone they knew? Someone who’d invited her over for Shabbat? Until she knew that, she couldn’t tell anyone anything. The weight of it pulled her down. She was so tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of living. Just—tired.
What was she doing here? Why was she holding out? Because her mother might be alive?
There was a solid fifty-fifty chance she was gone. After her husband passed, Abigail’s mother had never quite been the same. Her will for living hadn’t been there. It wasn’t hard to imagine she was gone.
Then what was she doing? Why was this her fight anymore? If Baron was right, then she’d wasted the last few years.
She could tell him everything. The deception. The blackmailing. The traitor. But what if Baron was behind it all? What if it was someone else?
But—Luke.
If she gave up, if she told them everything, they’d have no reason to release Luke. The Israeli government would not want to explain why they’d kept a former Navy SEAL in a dungeon for…however long they’d been down here. If she gave up now, they’d sweep it all away, and both she and Luke would disappear.
Unless…
Unless Luke rolled over on her. If he gave up information, they’d be forced to cut a deal. Let him go.
Dangerous Assignment (Aegis Group Book 4) Page 12